- James Henderson was born in Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, on March 3, 1836. He was the son of George Henderson (1791-1855) and Catherine Laurie (1791-1855). At the age of twenty-one years (1857) he left Glasgow, Scotland and emigrated to Canada, making the voyage in a sailing ship. It took him 30 days to complete his voyage.
On September 15, 1863, he married Beatrice Penman and engaged in weaving cotton and woolen fabrics for the farmer. This was too slow a pace for James' ambitious nature, so he and his family, consisting then of his wife and three children, came to Boone, Iowa by train and thence by prairie schooner to Powhatan township, Pocahontas, Iowa (1866). James' brother was already living in Iowa at this time, and he encouraged James to come and homestead. His family at that time consisted of George who was born on September 5, 1865, and the twins, Catherine and Elizabeth, who were born on March 22, 1864. James and his wife, Beatrice, were also accompanied by his brother, George Henderson and his wife, Cecelia Summers, and George and Cecelia's children: Janet, Catherine, Margaret, and George. A young man named James Ploven also accompanied the group.
When they arrived in Powhatan Township, James, his brother George, and James Ploven filed clams for homesteads and applied for naturalization papers on May 22, 1866. They received the documents which made them American citizens in 1871 and their land patents in 1876.
They made their houses out of sod that they broke up with a breaking plow. The sod was broken into 12-inch wide and 4-inch thick pieces. They drove ten miles to the river (West Branch Des Moines river) and there cut down trees. They cut them into 1-inch thick, 12-inches wide, and 12-feet high pieces of timber and put these up and down and put lathes over the cracks and made a better house to live in. They lived on Section 26 for three years. In the Spring of 1870, he located his homestead on the NW 1/4 of Section 8. He improved this farm with good buildings, fences, groves and an orchard. He remained on it when the times were hard and became the owner of 462 acres in that vicinity. His success was not a matter of chance, but was due to his constant endeavor to give the land thorough cultivation, the crops careful protection and all the interests of the farm his first attention, so that he might be able to push the work rather than have it crown him.
There was no railroad nearer than Fort Dodge, but there was an inland supply village and post office at Old Rolfe, about 12 miles distance from James' homestead. When they did go for supplies in Fort Dodge, it took them two days down and two days back. On one of these trips, James got half way home with supplies and a snow storm overtook him. He turned the wagon box upside down and crawled under it until the storm was over.
James and his family experience the hard times endured in real pioneer life; witnessed as well as helped to convert the raw prairie land into fertile and productive farms through drainage and cultivation, for there was nothing there when James and his family arrived, but slough and wild prairie grass which was a haven for the wild cranes, geese, brant, duck and other wild birds, reptiles and animals. The sloughs were covered with the colony houses which formed the homes of the muskrats. There were no roads in those days and the mode of travel was mostly by ox teams hitched to lumber wagons which the driver guided from place to place of the high ridges between the ponds.
Fuel was hard to obtain and many times, when the snow was deep and the blizzards swept over the bleak prairie, the family subsisted on the coffee mill, or cooked over a fire fueled by twisted hay which had been mowed and stacked during the summer months. They made their own candles for light. The neighbor women assisted in childbirth. Some had old medical book they went by.
The family grew in numbers as well as in stature until there were five stalwart sons and three sturdy daughters in the household. Catherine & Elizabeth - twins (March 22, 1864), George D. (September 5, 1865), William P. "Will" (November 7, 1867), John & Janet - twins (April 12, 1870), James Penman (October 11, 1871), & Charles Reese (April 30, 1874). More land was added to the original homestead until about 560 acres was included in the Henderson estate. James was one of the substantial and influential men in the township. He served many years as a school director and 13 years as a trustee of the township. He took a leading part in perfecting the Plover Presbyterian Church in 1886. He served as Sunday School Superintendent, clerk of the session for 34 years, and was an elder in the church of which he was the moving force in founding.
On the day before the 94th anniversary of his birth (March 3, 1836 - March 2, 1930), James passed from this earth to his Heavenly reward. James was small in stature, lived a simple and wholesome life and remained active physically as well as mentally, kept up to date on national, political, church and educational affairs, attended his church services regularly long after his hearing was too greatly impaired for him to hear the sermons. There are few people who have lived such a long and useful life and whose reputation has been as spotless as has "Uncle Jimmy" as he was known by the older folks, and "Grandpa Henderson" by the rising generation.
Since the death of his wife in 1903, James had made his home with a daughter, Mrs. Harry McFadzen. He took pride in caring for his garden and cutting wood, but as each year went by he became less active. About two months before his death, he became bedfast and his life slowly ebbed away. He was preceded in death by his wife in 1903, his son William in 1920, and three of his grandchildren.
(This information was obtained from the obituary of James Henderson which appeared in the Rolfe Arrow on Thursday, March 6, 1930.)
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James D. Henderson was born in Scotland in 1836 to George and Catherine (Laurie) Henderson. He is the brother of George Henderson. In 1863 he moved to Canada where he married Beatrice Penman. It is noted that they also arrived with James Ploven. On May 22, 1866, James, George and James Ploven all filed claims for their homesteads and to become citizens. Their naturalization papers arrived in 1871 and their homestead patents in 1876. James and Beatrice had eight children: Catherine Laurie, Elizabeth N., George D., William P., Janet & John H. (twins), James Penman and Charles Reese Henderson,
When the railroad went through Plover, Iowa the cattlemen from Texas would hire farmers to pasture cattle over the summer. The farmers would receive the profit of half the gain that the cattle obtained during the summer. James took advantage of pasturing the cattle for these cattlemen and each summer that James Henderson did this he purchased more land. The profits from feeding and pasturing the cattle over the summer were usually enough to purchase an 80-acre farm, which he did. He eventually purchased four 80-acre farms, one 120-acre farm, and one 40-acres farm, and homesteaded a 160-acre farm on which he lived. As he grew older and retired, he divided the land with his children. He gave the homeplace to his son, William. He gave the 40-acre farm to Catherine his oldest daughter. He gave each of the four 80-acres lots to his sons George, John, Charles, and to his daughter Janet McFadzen. He gave the 120-acre farm to his son, James P. Henderson.
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1836 - 1930 (93 years)
